1. Connections Between the Magnetic Carpet and the Unbalanced Corona: New Monte Carlo Models Steven R. Cranmer & Adriaan van Ballegooijen Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, Cambridge, MA Our goal was to begin testing the idea that magnetic reconnection & loop-opening powers the solar wind. New Monte Carlo models of the “magnetic carpet” reproduce many observed properties of the photospheric field. There does not appear to be enough energy released in loop-opening events to account for solar wind acceleration. SHINE session: Chromospheric Connections to the Heliosphere

2. Connections Between the Magnetic Carpet and the Unbalanced Corona: New Monte Carlo Models 1. Photospheric Field  We simulated the magnetic carpet in a photospheric “patch” (200x200 Mm) with a Monte Carlo ensemble of positive & negative monopole sources of magnetic flux.  These sources are assumed to emerge from below (as bipolar ephemeral regions), move around on the surface, merge or cancel with their neighbors, and spontaneously fragment.  The models matched observations of various statistical properties. Supergranular structure “emerged” spontaneously! Quiet Sun (ξ = 0) Coronal Hole (ξ = 0.8)

3. Connections Between the Magnetic Carpet and the Unbalanced Corona: New Monte Carlo Models 2. Coronal Field  We used the photospheric flux sources to extrapolate field lines up into the corona by assuming the field is derivable from a scalar potential (e.g., Wang 1998).  We used Longcope’s (1996) minimum current corona (MCC) method to estimate how much magnetic energy is liberated by reconnection events that transfer closed magnetic flux into open magnetic flux. This was found to usually be much smaller than the total available Poynting flux (S) injected by emerging bipoles into the system, and also much smaller than the energy flux needed to heat the corona (on open-field lines) & accelerate the wind.